Boy: I don’t know. We had to say what we liked doing best from the year. I put, “I liked the cooking”.

Mum: Ah – because you’re all leaving the class in a couple of weeks and will be going to your next one in September?

Boy: Yes. I really want Mrs C back.

Mum: What does Mrs C do?

Boy: She helps the teacher in the classroom. She works REALLY hard. She does really lovely work. She’s been there since it was built – on the FIRST day, when it opened, she was there and she went in and started working. She doesn’t even take breaks! If she was THROWN out and told to go away – she would just go back in and work. Once, she was told to go away for a break, and she didn’t!

Mum: Mrs C sounds like she likes her work. What work does she do?

Boy: I don’t know, she’s always too busy working and we’re always too busy learning… I know she cuts out lots of pictures.

Mum: Why does she cut out pictures – for the class to use?

Boy: No, she just cuts them out all the time. I don’t know what she uses them for. Mysterious…

D: I would LOVE to see the spacemans. How do you get back into Earth when you’re in space?
Do you have to stay there if you go into space?

Me: No because you’d go in a rocket – you’d just turn the rocket around and go back to Earth.

D: How can the rocket get back down if the world is just like a big ball and REALLY, REALLY hard and it can’t get through?

Me: What do you mean – it doesn’t need to go through the Earth – just land on it.

D: No, I MEAN… You know how the Earth is hard?

Me: Yes.

D: Well how can the rocket go back into a country if the Earth is a big ball and SO hard?

Me: Do you mean if the rocket is one side of the Earth in space and the country it’s going back to is on the other side? It would just go AROUND – like a bird. It doesn’t need to go through.

D: Really, really close mum, good try. That’s not what I mean!

Me: How about you show me what you mean on your planets poster when we go upstairs?

D: No, I’ll draw you a picture to show you what I mean…

Explanation of meaning – Nov 2012

D: That’s the Earth and they’re all stars around it. That’s the rocket [bottom], and it’s going back down to Earth. How can it go through when the Earth is really hard?

Me: Ahh! Yes, sorry – the rocket must turn around again just before it reaches the Earth and go in backwards, so it lands on its flat bit! Is that what you mean, because there’s a pointy bit on the top of the rocket?